The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1887-01-12
THE SIGN BEARER.

knowledge hend is, ambition an ogress.
-...----- New York Sum
THE SIGN BEARER.
Sandy" was not really his name, OF
course; but when a man becomes, in
point of fact, nothing but peripatetic
sandwich he is apt to grow indifferent to
small points of etiquette and to the social
e4actions that demand q prefix to o gem
tleman,s name when, he Is addressed.
For old Sandy was q gentleman in
spite of the fact that there was nothing
visible Of him above the sign board, so
to speak, but pair of dropping shout
ders inadequately covered with q rusty
tsseed coat; a weather beaten neck, in
which some of the cords seemed to have
acquired undue prominence by reason OF
the heavy boards swung by straps across
his dropping shoulders; acareworn fnce,
forever redeemed from insignificance by
pair of mild gray eyes that had caught
a commercial trick of looking very per-
suasiyely into the face of every passerby,
as he supplemented the big lettnred an
nouncements of his boards by hutter-
ing rose colored leafiet extended in q,
tremulous brown hand; thin, wind blown
gray hair and a disreputable hat that alb
solutely refused to locate itself chrome
logically in the calendar of fashion.
That was the upper man Sandy. Sandy
below the boards was principally notice
able on the occasion in question for q
pair of brand new shoes that apparently
squeaked in uncomfortable amusement
at finding themselves on Luch feet, with
such absurd accompaninents as those
immensely ragged trowser ends and
those brilliantly painted rims to Sandy's
sandwich boards, which set fMtli in the
most positive language the location of
the finest and cheapest shoe hlackfng to
be found in all New York city or per-
haps in the world. -.
Few, indeed, let them be ever so pune
tiliously inclined, would have known to
call old Sandy but just that; for it
seemed to go beyond the memory ofman
when he had not formed one OF. n solemn
procession of thin sandwiches, ranging
according to height, tall, taller, taIlest,
that plodded patiently up one side of
Broadway and down the other, proclaim-
ing the same excellence Of the same shoe
backing with the same patient intiiffer-
ence to the changes OF the weather as to,
the changes in the political horizon;i
with the same stolid acceptance of the
jostling that was inevitable when their
unyielding boards came in sharp contact
withthe swift rushing tide of humanity
that now swept with them and now
against them. %9e aitt
But hearts must trob, even under the
heavy pressure of sandwich boards, and
it was because the front man in the pro
cession, "tallcst, - knew that old Sandy's
had occasion to beat somewhat sorrow
fully just then that he turned and asked
him question on that bright but blus-
tering morning, not urgently, only alb
ruptly for want of time: s.
"How's the Midges''. 49,.
"Wurse."
There come moments of relaxation and
refreshnent even into sandwiched lives,
and when old Sandy s companions broke
ranks on that day to go to lunch he
separated himself from them and, drop
ping his slow commercial march step.
walked as, rapidly as he could for the
rigid impediments on his shoulders east
ward, ever eastward, until he reached
the dreary neighborhoodo of Hester street,
where he turned abruptly into door
that stood open and clattered up stairs,
his brand new shoes crcaking vocifer-
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ss;szsss4 t.sst:is t..s ,nn - ns
tao s.or-aJ - % sso Isnls anu
in front Of him and knocked twice. The
first knock sounded trifie apologetic,
the second n trifie impatient; both fail
.tss s - L.sl1s st...I - cauIlous,y eurneo aeS
:. s - ~. ..a .n.o sne rom.
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s.s sl.a olu oan9y
Ssa ~ s ,ss ~ n.ie lookin IN WIN
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